


keep me close (keep me in your heart)

by perfectlyrose



Series: The Femslash Collection [21]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 22:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11240616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: After a long few days away from the TARDIS, the Doctor and an injured Rose find themselves in a small motel room with a single bed.





	keep me close (keep me in your heart)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WordsInTimeAndSpace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordsInTimeAndSpace/gifts).



> Sue is a saint for being so patient with me. She gave me this prompt in January and it is now June. Thank you darling and I hope you like this!

Rose filed into the motel room behind the Doctor, barely awake enough to move and each step jarring her hurt shoulder. She and the Doctor had spent the last three days on Tiralix defusing a coup attempt and now they were dirty and exhausted and a day’s drive away from the TARDIS.

The Doctor had secured them a motel room with the flash of her psychic paper once they were about an hour outside of the city. Rose knew she wasn’t going to admit it but the Time Lady was just as worn down as Rose herself.

“Home sweet home for tonight,” the Doctor announced cheerily, sticking her hands into the pockets of her suit trousers. “Not much to look at, I’ll admit, but there’s a shower and a bed which is more than we had last night.”

Rose dragged her eyes up from the oddly patterned carpet to look around the room. Definitely not much to look at and definitely only one rather small bed for the two of them. She rather thought it was proof of how tired she was that the thrill of getting to sleep with the Doctor, even platonically, barely registered.

“Rose?”

She jerked her head to meet the Doctor’s eyes, blearily taking in her worried gaze. “Yeah, yeah, it’s great,” she said.

“Are you alright? You’ve been quieter than usual since we got out of the city.” The Doctor took a step forward, hand outstretched towards Rose. She flinched backwards and the Doctor dropped her hand quickly, trying not to let the hurt show on her face. 

“I’m fine. Just need to sleep I think,” Rose said. She attempted a smile but she thought it might be more akin to a grimace. “You can have the first shower, I don’t think I can stay upright long enough to actually get clean.”

She could feel the Doctor’s eyes on her as she moved towards the bed and sat on it. “Go on, I’m fine. Promise.” This time her smile felt a little bit more convincing.

The Doctor wavered, torn between worry for her companion and the desire to shower the dirt and ash off her skin. “I’ll be quick,” she said finally.

Rose flopped backwards on the bed, wincing when the movement jostled her shoulder wrong. Maybe if she could get some sleep it would stop hurting so much. She closed her eyes as she heard the water start in the ensuite and was asleep before hearing the Doctor step under the spray.

The Doctor didn’t wait for the water to warm up, wasn’t sure if this place even offered hot water. She stepped under the cold spray with a soft yelp and quickly rinsed out her brown curls and scrubbed herself down with a scratchy flannel.

She was out from under the water two minutes after she’d turned it on, wanting to get back to Rose as soon as possible. They’d been separated for a few hours near the end of the skirmish they’d ended up in the middle of and she was worried something had happened that Rose wasn’t telling her. 

The Doctor quickly dried off with a towel that was as rough as the flannel had been and then stuck her arm elbow-deep in the pocket of trousers, searching for the clean clothes that she knew she’d stashed in there at some point. She made a triumphant noise as her fingers finally brushed against soft fabric. The Doctor quickly donned the t-shirt and sleep trousers and headed back out into the main room, leaving her suit crumpled on the floor.

She smiled at the sight of Rose fast asleep and halfway off the bed. She definitely owed her companion a few days of downtime after all of this.

The Doctor padded across the room quietly, bare feet making hardly any noise on the thin carpet. She put a hand on Rose’s shoulder, intending to wake her with a gentle shake but the moment her hand made contact, Rose gave a pained cry, eyes flying open.

The Doctor pulled back like she’d been burned. “You’re hurt,” she said, not making it a question. Rose was hurt and she hadn’t told her and she hadn’t  _ noticed _ . How could she not have noticed?

“It’s not bad,” Rose said softly, meeting the Doctor’s eyes. She tried to sit up but hissed when the motion did not agree with her shoulder.

“No, no, don’t move,” the Doctor said, pushing her back down gently. “Let me take a look?”

Rose nodded. “Someone slammed something into it when we fighting. Didn’t break the skin but it hurts.”

The Doctor pulled her jacket and then the strap of her vest top to the side with careful fingers. Her lips thinned to a hard line when she got a look at the colorful bruising mottling Rose’s skin. She lightly marched her fingers over Rose’s collarbone, checking for fractures. She winced when Rose inhaled sharply.

“What’s the diagnosis?” Rose asked.

“Heavy bruising, might have fractured your collarbone,” she rattled off as she eased Rose’s clothes back into place. “Do you want to shower?

“Yeah, but I want to not move more.”

“You’re still going to have to move to go back to sleep. Can’t have you hanging half off the bed all night.”

“Comfy, though,” Rose complained, closing her eyes again.

“Maybe but you’re hogging the bottom half of the bed and I’m too tall to sleep crossways on this bed.” The Doctor kept her voice carefully light, trying to distract Rose from her injury and the worry that was starting to make the Time Lady jittery. 

Rose cracked an eye open to look at her friend who was looming over her. “Are you actually sleeping tonight?”

“Yeah, it’s been awhile since I got any shuteye.” She shifted her weight heel to toe and back. “You don’t mind sharing, do you?”

The Doctor didn’t think Rose would mind but she also hadn’t thought Rose would hide an injury from her like this.

They’d shared a bed before when they’d been on-planet overnight with no other options or when someone assumed they were together and there was no way to politely correct their assumptions and still have somewhere to sleep. The Doctor loved those nights when she had the chance to be close to Rose, to fall asleep and wake up to the sight of her blonde hair messy on the pillows and her face utterly relaxed as she slept.

“Not at all,” Rose said. “Can you help me up?”

The Doctor took the hand Rose offered and  pulled her so she was sitting upright again.

Rose swept her eyes over the Doctor, taking in the new clothes and the way her damp curls were turning the shoulders of her shirt a darker shade of blue. “Where’d you find pajamas?”

“My pockets.”

“Of course. Have any more sets hidden away in there?”

The Doctor pressed her tongue to the back of her teeth, trying to mentally catalouge the contents of her pockets. “Might do,” she said after a moment. “I’ll go check.”

She rifled through her pockets again and only came up with a pair of shorts.

“I don’t seem to have a full set,” she said apologetically as she walked back towards the bed, shorts in hand.

“S’alright. At least I can get out of these jeans.” Rose took the shorts from the Doctor and slipped into the ensuite to change. It was a challenge getting out of her jacket without help but she managed. By the time she reemerged, she was more ready than ever to get some sleep, the very last of her energy gone.

The Doctor had turned down the covers while she was changing and was sitting on one side of the bed. “Alright?” she asked softly.

“Yeah. I’m hoping that sleep makes this hurt less,” Rose said with a quick smile as she carefully lowered herself down on the bed.

“Oh! Stupid!” The Doctor exclaimed, sitting up straighter and slapping her palm against her forehead. “I’ve got some painkillers in my jacket pocket.”

“Yes please,” Rose said before the Doctor could even ask if she wanted them.

She quickly found the pills and a bottle of water in the left pocket of her suit jacket and handed them to Rose. Once the water bottle was empty, the pair of them slid underneath the covers. The Doctor turned out the lamp on the table next to the bed, plunging the room into darkness. 

They lay in silence, facing each other in the dark but not touching.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” The Doctor asked, the words escaping now that she was sure that Rose couldn’t see the look on her face.

“I didn’t want to worry you,” Rose whispered. “I didn’t think you could do anything about it until we got back to the TARDIS and I thought I could grit it out until then.”

“I could’ve given you painkillers hours ago, Rose. I wouldn’t have pushed us so hard in getting here tonight if I’d known you were hurt.”

Rose reached out blindly until she found the Doctor’s hand. She twined her fingers around the Time Lady’s.  “I’m sorry, Doctor. I just didn’t want you to worry about me.”

“I always worry about you, Rose.”

“Well, stop that,” she answered, squeezing her fingers.

The Doctor heard Rose yawn. “Get some sleep, Rose. We’ll get a ride to the TARDIS tomorrow and I’ll see what I can do for your shoulder there.”

“Mmm, it’ll be good to be home finally,” Rose mumbled, already half asleep.

The Doctor just stared at her companion, awe and warmth and love filling her heart at hearing Rose refer to the TARDIS as home.

By the time she felt like she could speak without spilling her emotions everywhere, Rose’s breathing had slowed, signaling that she was asleep. The Doctor shifted closer to Rose and carefully put an arm over her waist.

She fell asleep like that, Rose loosely in her arms.

She woke with Rose on her chest, still sound asleep and apparently happy to use her as a pillow. The Doctor was happy to let her and hoped that she remembered this moment forever, remembered the happiness that filled her entire being at being able to wake like this.

She dropped a soft kiss on the top of Rose’s head and thought that maybe,  _ maybe _ , she should let Rose know soon that she would like this to be a regular occurrence.

Rose’s eyes fluttered open and when she met the Doctor’s gaze, eyes still soft and glazed with sleep, hair a mess, the Doctor felt the last bit of her resolve crumble. She smiled softly at Rose and pressed a lingering kiss to her cheek.

As soon as they were home, the Doctor would talk to her.


End file.
